Swedish

An Honest Review of Memrise With Image of Man Holding Phone

Memrise Review – Useful But Don’t Overuse It

Memrise

Rating 4.0
★★★★★

Summary

Memrise is a super popular language-learning app available online and on mobile. It functions much like a gamified flashcard app, and it offers a lot of content for free. A lot of the content is user-created, and there is a premium subscription that provides access to additional features. Memrise can be a great tool in your arsenal, but you’ll need more to learn a language seriously.

Quality 4.0
★★★★★

The mobile app looks great and is easy to use, but the website is clunky. Works very well for memorization.

Thoroughness 4.0
★★★★★

There are quite a few official Memrise courses, and the number of user-created courses is massive, but you’ll benefit from using additional resources.

Value 4.0
★★★★★

The free version of the app provides a lot of value, but the paid version doesn’t offer much more.

I Like
  • The spaced repetition software is effective for memorization
  • The huge range of available content
  • It’s more interactive than other flashcard apps
I Don’t Like
  • It’s not enough for continued language learning
  • Website navigation is clunky
  • Premium version isn’t much more valuable than the free version
Price

For the full version of Memrise, the subscription prices are:

$8.99/monthly $59.99/annually $119.99 – lifetime subscription

Signing up for a free account with Memrise automatically gives you access to limited versions of their official courses.

Visit Memrise

What do you get when a Grand Master of Memory and a Princeton neuroscientist team up to create a language learning app?

…

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An Honest Review of uTalk with Image of Person on Computer

uTalk Review – For Beginners Who Want To Learn Key Words & Phrases

uTalk

Rating 3.7
★★★
★
★★

Summary

uTalk is a software program and mobile app offering learning material in over 140 languages. Its approach is based on learning keywords and phrases through gameplay. It covers a wide range of phrases, each spoken by a female and male native speaker, consequently offering listening and pronunciation practice. uTalk is most useful for beginners who want to get started in a language by learning key phrases. It could also be useful for intermediates looking to fill gaps in their vocabulary and pronunciation, but it does not offer any in-depth language instruction or grammar explanations. It’s also worth mentioning that for some languages, such as Basque, the occasional overly literal translation leads to small errors and unnatural phrasing creeping in. However, we haven’t seen instances in which this would result in you being misunderstood, and there’s no denying uTalk’s value for languages with fewer learning resources.

Quality 3.5
★★★
★
★★

The app is very user-friendly, and the content is mostly useful, but little variation in practice activities can become repetitive.

Thoroughness 3.5
★★★
★
★★

The app does a good job of teaching key words and phrases, but review opportunities aren’t as transparent or comprehensive as they could be.

Value 4.0
★★★★★

The price is very low, there’s a lot of content, and the right learner could get some serious practical use out of the resource.

I Like
  • The number of languages on offer is staggering.
  • Each phrase is recorded by a male and female native speaker. This was especially helpful in learning pronunciation.
  • You frequently get to hear recordings of yourself producing the language. I found this motivating and informative.
I Don’t Like
  • The Memory Game exercise felt like a waste of time. It’s difficult to get a perfect score even if you know the language well.
  • I kept wishing there was a way to choose which phrases I could practice in games instead of them being randomly selected.
Price

$11.99 a month that can be cancelled anytime. 6 months costs $59.99 and for one year it is $99.99. 

VISIT UTALK

This was my first encounter with uTalk, so I didn’t know what to expect before trying it out. A quick search on the internet showed third-party reviews saying everything from “It’s just ok” to “Become fluent in another language with uTalk.” My experience was something much closer to the former.

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SwedishPod101 – Better as a Supplemental Resource

SwedishPod101

Rating 4.0
★★★★★

Summary

SwedishPod101 offers audio and video lessons (though they’re mostly audio) for learning Swedish. They’re similar to a podcast with two hosts teaching the language with the help of natural dialogues. They take the time to explain key grammar points, vocabulary, interesting cultural information, and so on. Their tends to be more content for beginners and the lesson structure could be improved. As such, it’s better as a supplementary tool for improving your Swedish, rather than a standalone course.

Quality 4.0
★★★★★

The lessons are generally well-made, though quality can vary depending on when it was added.

Thoroughness 4.0
★★★★★

Although there’s a lot of content, it’s not structured particularly well.

Value 4.0
★★★★★

Good value for a low cost.

I Like
  • It’s extremely useful for getting extra listening practice.
  • They teach using natural dialogues, while explaining important grammar, vocabulary, and interesting cultural information.
  • As you move up levels, English is used less.
I Don’t Like
  • Too much English is used in the lessons.
  • The platform can be confusing to navigate and the recommended lesson pathways aren’t always the best.
  • Although there are lots of extra features, only a few of them are actually useful.
Price

There are many subscription lengths available which lower the cost. But, a one-month subscription costs:

Basic: $4/mo Premium: $10/mo Premium Plus: $23/mo

Use the promo code “ALLLANGUAGERESOURCES” to save 25% on a subscription to SwedishPod101.

Visit SwedishPod101

Here at All Language Resources, we take great pride in writing comprehensive reviews of language learning resources.

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An Honest Review of Drops App With Image of Woman on Phone

Drops App Review – Decent As A Supplementary Resource

Drops App

Rating 3.9
★★★
★
★★

Summary

Drops is a phone app for iPhone and Android that covers 33 languages. Daily games test the user on thousands of vocabulary words, and many of these words are ideal for everyday use. Drops has an entertaining, user-friendly interface, but it also lacks grammar lessons, and it works better for some languages than others. For anyone looking to supplement their vocab lessons, this app is worth considering; however, the free version might be more worthwhile than the paid version.

Quality 4.0
★★★★★

Though cute and easy to use, some visuals are hard to distinguish.

Thoroughness 3.0
★★★★★

Drops will teach you thousands of words and phrases, from transport and hobbies to astronomy and spices. Some languages, such as Japanese, have extra modules for culturally specific vocabulary.

Value 3.0
★★★★★

The free app is a great supplementary tool to help round out your vocabulary, but the paid app doesn’t offer many useful extras.

I Like
  • The daily reminders keep me accountable.
  • If you already know a word, you have the option of swiping up and removing it from your lessons.
  • Though the app works better for some languages, the sheer amount of languages is a plus.
I Don’t Like
  • It can be difficult to tell certain images apart, which means you’ll likely identify them incorrectly during your review.
  • Some of the categories seem to include random, unrelated words.
  • In languages where a noun’s grammatical gender or case isn’t obvious from the article, you won’t learn that information.
  • Drops only teaches you vocabulary, not grammar.
Price

A monthly subscription costs $9.99, a yearly subscription is $69.99, and a lifetime subscription is $159.99. You can use the app up to five minutes every ten hours for free.

Visit Drops

I’d previously heard about Drops on Reddit, where it achieved rave reviews and some pointed criticism.

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Transparent Language Review – Not Exciting, But Language Offering Is So Vast That You May Need It

Transparent Language

Rating 2.3
★★
★
★★★

Summary

Transparent Language markets itself as “the most complete language-learning system for independent learners.” While there are lots of different exercises for you to work through in their Essentials Course, I thought that the material wasn’t all that helpful and that it got very repetitive. Although the courses might not be all that useful or in-depth, with over a hundred languages on offer it might be worth checking out if you want to learn the very basics of a more obscure language such as Buriat, Kazakh or Turkmen.

Quality 2.5
★★
★
★★★

While the exercises are for the most part well-designed, diverse and easy to use, it is the core material itself that I found lacking.

Thoroughness 2.0
★★★★★

I hardly came across any explanations at all; practice was almost exclusively memorizing words and phrases.

Value 2.5
★★
★
★★★

I would only consider using if I was studying a very rare language.

I Like
  • I really like the fact that they offer up courses in languages that are usually overlooked.
  • It’s pretty well-designed, easy to use and has lots of different activities to work through.
I Don’t Like
  • The core material is severely lacking in my opinion; it’s hard for me to imagine you’ll learn much grammar or how to form even a basic sentence yourself.
  • It gets very repetitive and so I didn’t find it that fun to work through.
  • You learn virtually nothing about the different cultural contexts of the languages you’re learning.
  • Their teaching methodology was the biggest issue for me, leaving you memorizing lots of words and phrases in isolation.
Price

There is a free two-week trial period for you to try it out. Otherwise, it is $24.95 per month or $149.95 for a whole year if you just select one language. If you want access to all of the languages it is then $49.95 per month and $249.95 a year.

Visit Transparent Language
…

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Michel Thomas Method Review – Avoid At All Costs

Michel Thomas Method

Rating 1.7
★
★
★★★★

Summary

One of the most famous language teaching courses out there, Michel Thomas is a household name. The platform advertises itself as “The method that works with your brain” and boasts a teaching method “with no books, exercises, memorizing or homework” in several of its course descriptions. It’s available in 18 languages with courses that have material suitable for absolute beginners. I tried out the French foundation course and found it to be severely lacking and as such cannot recommend it at all. You may, however, have more luck with the other language courses that they offer.

Quality 2.0
★★★★★

Very easy to use, and the audios are decent quality, but I found that Michel Thomas’ discouraging manner flustered students, which detracted from the content’s quality in my experience.

Thoroughness 2.0
★★★★★

In my opinion, Michel Thomas doesn’t go into much depth and any explanations he offers up are just at a surface level.

Value 1.0
★★★★★

I wouldn’t use these even if they were free due to Michel Thomas’ teaching style which ruined the material for me.

I Like
  • Um…in all honesty I’m not sure if I enjoyed any of it!
I Don’t Like
  • Michel Thomas never praises the students, often interrupts them and creates a negative learning environment.
  • The pacing of the lessons often seems off to me and in certain places they feel very hurried.
  • I thought all of the lessons were almost identical and so it got quite monotonous working through them.
Price

There are several different courses available with prices ranging from $11.99 to $100.

Visit Michel Thomas

Before working my way through the French foundation course, I had never tried a Michel Thomas course despite hearing so much about it.

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Glossika Review – Not Cheap But Useful

Glossika

Rating 3.6
★★★
★
★★

Summary

Glossika has learning resources for over fifty languages that impressively range from Armenian and Czech to Icelandic and Tagalog. While not suitable for absolute beginners, lower intermediates could use the resource to familiarise themselves with sentences in their language of choice using Glossika´s intuitive approach. Listening to native speakers and repeating what they say can help learners to improve their comprehension skills and spoken fluency. While it is amazing that so many languages are included, learners would have to use numerous other resources alongside it. The cost is unjustifiably high.

Quality 3.8
★★★
★
★★

The audio recordings are well made but other aspects could be improved

Thoroughness 3.8
★★★
★
★★

Glossika covers an impressive number of languages but their method requires you to intuitively learn

Value 3.5
★★★
★
★★

Polyglots may find the price to be fair but for most language learners it’s not

I Like
  • There are lots of languages available, including many that are rarely covered by other resources.
  • The subscription gives you access to all of the languages making it possible to study one language and review another at the same time.
  • It will force you to speak the language which will improve your confidence and prosody.
I Don’t Like
  • As all of the languages cover the exact same material, the diversity of the languages and cultures are reduced to a simple formula with no cultural context involved in their teaching.
  • There are a fair amount of errors in the materials.
  • The cost is excessively high compared to other resources.
  • There are no explanations of grammar.
Price

You can try out Glossika´s learning method for free with their week-long trial. Their basic subscription is $16.99 a month. The monthly subscription costs $30.99 a month. The annual subscription costs $24.99 a month and will set you back 299.88$ in total.

Click the link below to save $5 on a subscription to Glossika.

30% off Back-To-School Promotion is going until October 1st, 2023. Use Coupon Code: BTS2023

Try Glossika For Free

Few resources cover as many different languages as Glossika does. Because of this, I was excited to try it out and see what it’s like to use.

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